Hey everyone, we want to add sliding doors like in a hospital in our Dr.'s lab area to split up the rooms and keep the groups from getting to clumped together but we have no idea how we would build sliding doors that we could remotely open. Any thoughts or suggestions would be awesome and as always greatly appreciated.

Allen H

03-06-2011, 07:49 PM

Barn door track, garage door opener...they even come with a remote. You will need some bike chain and a toothed gear for it, get that from Servocity.com
Allen H

gadget-evilusions

03-06-2011, 07:55 PM

I am actually building a pneumatically operated pocket door set up right now as a custom order. Linear bearings and magnetically coupled rod less pneumatic cylinder (for safety).

bhays

03-07-2011, 07:21 AM

That's right, Gadget. Safety first at Fear Fair. lol

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Jim Warfield

03-07-2011, 07:40 AM

In the basement. Barn door trolley system mounted on a tipping 2 by 10 teeter-totter tipped up and down , ever so slightly by a air-powered cylinder.
When the door is in a closed position anyone can still grab it and slide to open since gravity is all that holds it closed.
Motion switches on each end plus a hand-held battery remote to make it do what you want it to do when you might need to have it work.
When the power is off it is in the closed configuration but can be slid back, open and will remain there in the open position because the teeter-totter is adjusted that closely so as not to have it closed. The weight of the sliding door might help to do this too?
If you use two motin switches make sure there are no interfearing bright lights to make a false reading and make the door close when it shouldn't.

smasters

03-07-2011, 08:33 AM

Great Idea Jim. The only thing I see left is to make sure no one gets thier hands or fingers between the door and wall when its sliding.

On another note.. you can also hinge the sliding door so it also opens like a regular door.

Alot of fire marshals require this on hospital buldings because if theres a power failure the sliding doors can still be opened manually.

I think they call them break away sliding doors.

not sure.

My 2 cents with 2 second of thought

Smasters

Matt Marich

03-07-2011, 08:18 PM

To keep fingers from damage, create a large rubber gasket on the close side, soft enough to trap fingers but not capture them.

Jim Warfield

03-08-2011, 06:33 PM

"Large Rubber Gasket" I made the male and female parts of the door and the doorjam zig-zag correspondingly to mesh, with the rubber gasket on each piece.
Sooo there is that design "hint" of teeth coming together even though there are rubber caps on them all.
The "Whoose!" of the compressed air gets their attention and also alerts them as to them making a quick decision to not be where they ought not to be. But this is all moot, since I am controlling it's opening and closing, watching where they are standing.
When I have small kids in the group I will make a production of asking the child what their favorite magic word is?
Then when they say it,, the door opens!! Wow! You saved us all!
Of course asking adults what their favorite magic word is can be risky.
She said, "My magic word is "Please... Stop!"